Omaha - Need a car? Borrow a Zipcar! UNO has partnered with Zipcar to bring self-service, on-demand car sharing to the area. To use Zipcars, simply register as a member, reserve a car online or by phone, use your Zipcard to enter the car, and drive away. When you're done, return the car to the same location where you picked it up.

As a member you get:

• Access to Zipcars 24/7.
• Discounted hourly rates for faculty, staff and students age 18 and older: rates start at just $7.50/hour or $69/day.
• Gas, insurance and maintenance are included for free!
• Join for only $25 a year, and receive $35 in driving credit your first month.

Omaha - Green UNO is looking for individuals interested in participating in a new campus-wide beautification project. UNO Green Thumbs' volunteers will be responsible for deadheading flowers and weeding near buildings and designated common areas.

Each volunteer will provide his/her own gloves; however, Landscape Services will make available gardening tools and receptacles for the disposal of plants. If interested, sign up to participate at this link .

Individuals who sign up will be invited to a kick-off meeting. All green thumbs' volunteers are required to fill out a Faculty/Employee Volunteer Form. The designated building leader will determine participation. Proposed volunteer times: before/after work and over lunch hour. This pilot program will run until Columbus Day (mid-October).

Omaha - The City of Omaha welcomes the first of its kind outdoor fitness area, which opened in Elmwood Park on Wednesday, June 29.

A dedication ceremony was held at 11 a.m. at the park, near 67th and Pacific Streets.

The park initially began as a hypothetical project for Schenkelberg in one of her health education classes at UNO.

After in-depth research, Schenkelberg and two other UNO graduates Emily Casne and April Proskovec began work on the project under the supervision of Dr. John Noble and Dr. David Corbin. Two years later, Elmwood Fitness Park became a reality. The project is also supported by the UNO Service-Learning Academy.

The park includes eight pieces of exercise equipment, including: a wheelchair-accessible multi-gym; a rowing machine; a sit-up bench; stretching bars; a double leg press; two elliptical machines; and a shoulder press/pull-down combo machine.

The equipment uses each person’s body weight to determine the resistance, rather than using weights. The equipment comes from TriActive America.

Elmwood Fitness Park will be open to the public year-round, during standard park hours and is always free. The equipment is designed to withstand the weather and little-to-no maintenance is required, Schenkelberg said.

The project was made possible by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, UNO, City of Omaha Parks and Recreation and the Omaha Parks Foundation. Craig Larson, Olsson Associates landscape architect, designed the park. Kiewit donated the cement and curbing for the park.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $40,000 and has been privately funded by participating organizations.

For more information, or to arrange interviews, contact Kristin Neemann at (402) 708-4173 or kmneemann@unomaha.edu.

Omaha B-cycle Program Launched June 15

Omaha - Omaha B-cycle, a unique bike sharing system, launched on campus and in Omaha on June 15. The ceremony took place from 9 to 11 a.m. at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, 1919 Aksarben Dr.

"We invite you to come see how the ‘check-out' process works, pick up more information, talk with our spokespersons and give one of the bikes a ride for yourself," said David Corbin, bike advocate and professor in the UNO School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. "This is a new healthy idea for the city."

Omaha B-cycle, is an innovative system offering the community a chance to check out and ride a bike from one of five stations in Omaha. UNO's Aksarben Village is one of five stations in Omaha's first B-cycle hub.

The program's goal is to help make Omaha a healthier and greener city. It is a citywide partnership between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, Live Well Omaha and Community Bike Project Omaha.

The GreenUNO Task Force and Mav-Rec Wellness support this green and wellness community event.

UNO Plants Tree to Mark Designation as a Tree Campus USA Campus

Omaha - UNO was recently recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree Campus USA Campus. To mark the occasion (and in celebration of Arbor Day) Facilities Management and Planning planted a ginkgo tree outside the Welcome Center at 8 A.M. on April 29 2011.

Designation as a Tree Campus USA Campus signifies UNO is dedicated to reducing the amount of energy it utilizes. Trees will provide shade for buildings, students and plants while reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to the Arbor Day Foundation Website, "Tree Campus USA colleges and universities strive to engage their student body as well as their broader community to establish and sustain healthy community forests for the benefit of current and future residents."

To be eligable, a campus must meet five standards to join the organization. Standard one requires the campus to have a "Campus Tree Advisory Committee." Second, the UNO had to have a "Campus Tree Care Plan" to provide guidance for "planting, maintaining and removing trees." The third standard requires UNO to allocate finances for its campus tree program. Additionally Arbor day must be observed by the university community. Lastly, a Service Learning Project must be completed in hopes of engaging the Sstudent population.

Student Government Initiative Makes Bus Passes Available to 400 Students

Omaha - Student Government at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) partnered with Omaha’s Metro to provide 400 UNO students with free public transit transportation during the Spring 2011 semester. The program was extended to the Fall 2011 semester, and expanded to provide 600 students with passes.

Students can claim a free bus pass, on a first come first serve basis, in the Student Government office, located on the first floor of the Milo Bail Student Center near the Fireplace Lounge.
The free passes are valid for the Fall 2011 semester.
For a summary of MavRide Facts from the Spring semester, click here.

Omaha - Mammel Hall, the new home to the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), has become the first building within the University of Nebraska system to earn LEED gold certification for its green and energy saving features.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system. LEED provides third-party verification on construction projects that are built using strategies aimed at energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Ground broke on the 120,000-square-foot Mammel Hall construction project, located at 67th and Pine Streets, in June 2008. The $34 million facility opened to UNO students, faculty and staff in August 2010.

Mammel Hall received LEED certification in 2010 based on the following features:

Development Density and Community Connectivity
The building’s design works to support connectivity between UNO and the adjacent Aksarben Village development.

Alternative Transportation: Public Transportation Access
Mammel Hall is located within a quarter-mile of one existing campus bus route and two existing city bus routes, thus promoting the use of public transportation and reducing pollution and land development impacts from automobile use.

Daylight and Views, Daylighting 75 Percent of Spaces
Daylight fills nearly 75 percent of the offices, conference rooms, open work areas, workstations, administrative areas and the dean’s suite. This feature provides students, faculty and staff a connection between indoor spaces and the outdoors, which, according to LEED standards, promotes productivity, comfort and wellbeing.

Water Reduction
The unique plant species used in the outdoor landscape design will reduce water consumed for irrigation by 52 percent.

Construction Waste Management
More than 97 percent of construction waste from Mammel Hall was diverted from landfills.

Low Mercury and Energy Efficient Lamps
Mammel Hall construction crews established and maintained a toxic material source-reduction program to reduce the amount of mercury brought onto the building site and removed from the site in waste through the lamping of low mercury, energy efficient luminaires.

Stormwater Management
About 20 percent of the rainwater that falls on and around Mammel Hall is fed to basins and allowed to percolate below ground to recharge the aquifer and reduce the demand on storm sewers.

“Many businesses have and are making the change to be more green, and many businesses are being created to provide green services and products,” said Rick Yoder of the Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center and the Nebraska Business Development Center at UNO. “What I think most of us are happiest about is that Mammel Hall – and the evolving initiative in sustainability – is representative of what can be accomplished through the great work of a team of many people from across the campus and the community. As nice as it is to be working in a great facility, it’s even nicer to have the collective efforts of campus and community working for future improvements.”

Among those community partners is Holland Basham Architects, who designed Mammel Hall.

“Mammel Hall not only serves as an iconic gateway to UNO’s Pacific Street campus, but also demonstrates a leadership attitude of doing ‘the right thing’ in terms of sustainability and positioning itself as a leader among peer institutions,” said Curt Witzenburg of Holland Basham Architects in Omaha. “With the College of Business Administration and Mammel Hall adopting a sustainable philosophy, the facility not only generates an increased level of interest within the community, but also has the potential to aid in student and faculty recruitment, as these groups become more aware of the positive effects these concepts have.”

“A large percent of construction materials used on Mammel Hall were produced within a 500-mile radius, encouraging job growth while reducing transportation costs,” Witzenburg said. “Through creative daylighting strategies, innovating design of the building’s heating, cooling and lighting system, Mammel Hall is expected to see energy savings that result in less cost to taxpayers for the duration of the building.”

It is important to note that UNO is a campus that preserves its facilities. The oldest building at UNO – Arts and Sciences Hall, the university’s first building dedicated on Nov. 4, 1938 – is 73 years old.

College of Business Administration Dean Louis Pol said he anticipates Mammel Hall to continue serving students for the next 50 to 75 years, following the precedent set by older facilities on the UNO campus that are renovated and made anew for years to come.

Food Services staff at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) today announced plans to "Go Green – Fall 2010" with an eco-friendly change. The containers and serving receptacles (including all flatware and paper goods) the department uses will all be compostable and bio-degradable PLA (polylactic acid), cornstarch-based and recycled paper materials starting in August.

"This change in the UNO Food Services operation is a pro-active and responsible step, and very much in keeping with UNO's mission to be student focused and community engaged," said Bill Conley, vice chancellor for Business and Finance at UNO. "This change had very strong support throughout campus with students, faculty and staff, and it demonstrates our campus concern for sustainability and the environment."